jBPM 5.3 has just been released. It includes a large amount of smaller improvements and fixes, and also contains a few new bigger features as well:

We would like to introduce our new Eclipse editor for defining business process in Eclipse (using the BPMN 2.0 standard). This editor will offer support for the full BPMN2 specification, and currently offers support for at least the same constructs as the previous plugin. We will continue to extend it over time with all the other constructs the jBPM core engine already supports, but we would like to hear your feedback as well !

A first version of the form builder has been released as well. This form builder allows you to create and edit your forms (for tasks and processes) in a graphical way, using drag and drop. It supports the usual components like labels, text fields and areas, buttons, etc. but already has support for various layouts, scripting, building your own components, etc. [Note: this first version is currently only supported on FireFox but we're working on adding support for all other browsers as well]

The web designer received a lot of love as well, with new features like user-friendly property editors, color themes, a dictionary, inline form editing, etc.

The jbpm-human-task module has been split up in a jbpm-human-task-core module and sub-modules for the different transport protocols available (hornetq, mina, jms), and a separate war that can be deployed in the application server (and is made easily configurable now). The installer now uses the war (with HornetQ) by default.

Integration between the jBPM console and Guvnor has been upgraded, to support new packages being added in Guvnor, removal of processes, etc.

Lots of persistence improvements to better support different databases, and we're using a new serialization technology (Protobuf) to better support upgrading / migration in the future.

You can download the release here (if you're not sure what you're looking for, downloading the full installer and then following the installer chapter to set up your environment and run through the tooling with a simple example is probably a good idea), or browse the documentation and javadocs.

i suggest that be alert with a problem that have the 5.3 release about the crucial aspects of jbpm-console and human-task that affects the users of the tool. The issues appear in the demo process. When you logon as mary and john users you dont see any tasks assigned and the process never complete. the issue has a long time an i can't resolved yet

Did you guys try and test jBPM 5.3 's final released version with jboss 7.1.X before the release ? According to the following threads ,

https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBPM-3698

https://community.jboss.org/thread/197349?tstart=0

https://community.jboss.org/thread/197080

https://community.jboss.org/thread/197349

https://community.jboss.org/thread/201643?tstart=0

many users reports that they encountered the following error when using jBPM 5.3 with jboss 7.1.X

18:10:09,783 ERROR [org.reflections.Reflections] (MSC service thread 1-7) could not create Vfs.Dir from url. ignoring the exception and continuing: org.reflections.ReflectionsException

at org.reflections.vfs.Vfs.fromURL(Vfs.java:99) [reflections-0.9.5-RC2_jboss-SP1.jar:]

at org.reflections.vfs.Vfs.fromURL(Vfs.java:89) [reflections-0.9.5-RC2_jboss-SP1.jar:]

One of the area that affected by this problem is that it causes the report cannnot be loaded from the bpm web console . Please confirm if it is a bug. If yes , I suggest that it 's better to warn user thatjBPM 5.3 final release version cannot work with jboss 7.1.X in order to prevent new users from wasting their time and have bad experience when trying jbpm5.3 with the jboss 7.1.X . Especailly , you should delete this remark " if you move to 7.1, don't forget to change the following line (7.0 -> 7.1) " from build.properties as this remark causes user think that it will work with jboss 7.1.X but actually it does not.

"You can download the release here (if you're not sure what you're looking for, downloading the full installer and then following the installer chapter to set up your environment and run through the tooling with a simple example is probably a good idea), or browse the documentation and javadocs."